As the number of telematics-equipped vehicles continues to increase, so does the utilization of wireless communication systems to provide telematics services to and from those vehicles. Typically, these services are carried out via one or more wireless carriers' networks; for example, cellular telephone carriers that have interlinked wireless cellular networks using GSM, CDMA or other technology to provide communication over the network between the vehicles and a call center or other remote facility. These networks typically include monitoring equipment and processes that seek to determine base station or other equipment performance problems, such as service outages, so that they can be timely addressed to provide the wireless carrier's customers with reliable cellular service.
Most cellular customers are individuals or business that use the cellular service as a communications means for voice and/or data. In most cases that communication is generally decentralized, making it unsuitable for customer-based monitoring of network performance. Given that the provision of vehicle telematics services involves communication between geographically distributed vehicles and a much more limited number of central facilities, it has become feasible for the telematics services providers, as customers of one or more particular cellular carriers, to perform their own monitoring of the cellular network performance to help improve operation of the network.